Naples: Prayers for murdered immigrants

Muslims in the southern city of Naples on Tuesday dedicated prayers to mark the end of Ramadan to six West African immigrants killed earlier this month by suspected Mafia hitmen in the nearby town of Castel Volturno.


"The unbalanced and perverse growth of Italy's south has afflicted Muslim immigrants and subjected them to abuse and intimidation," the head of the city's Muslim community, Abdullah Massimo Cozzolino, told 3,000 Muslims who gathered in the Piazza del Carmine.


Four suspects have been arrested over the fatal shootings on 18 September of three Ghanaians, two Liberians and a Togolese, outside a tailor's shop in Castel Volturno.


Immigrants have denied the massacre was part of a drugs 'turf war' with members of the local Mafia or Camorra.


Naples' Muslim community has contacted the Ghananian embassy about giving financial aid to return the bodies of the three slain Ghananians to their families, Cozzolino told Adnkronos International (AKI).


"We need to consider each person as a brother. Instead of putting up barriers, we need to consider everyone in Naples as one community," local councillor Gianfranco Wurzburger told Muslims gathered in the piazza.


Prayers ended with a sermon from Naples' imam, Yasin Gentile. He invited the Muslim faithful "to set an example of unity and cohesion...as the Koran teaches, and to portray a just image of Islam."


Source: AKI (English)

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